Muriel Pénicaud, then Minister of Labor, on March 4, 2023 at the Elysée, in Paris (AFP/Archives/Ludovic Marin)
The former Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud, assured Saturday that she had “nothing” to “reproach herself for” after the disclosure of her indictment in the investigation into suspicions of favoritism towards the Havas agency, organizer of an evening in 2016 in Las Vegas, where Emmanuel Macron met French entrepreneurs.
“My integrity is total, I am serene, I have a clear conscience (…) Because I have nothing to reproach myself for, quite simply”, underlined the ex-minister (2017-2020), in a message sent to AFP, after the newspaper Le Monde revealed his indictment which took place in October.
In this so-called “Business France” affair, Ms. Pénicaud is indicted as former director general of the public organization promoting the French economy abroad, dependent on Bercy.
At the heart of the matter: a controversial stay in January 2016 of future President Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy (August 2014 – August 2016), in the American city of Las Vegas, to meet hundreds of French entrepreneurs, moment of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), high mass of technological innovation.
To set up the operation at a cost of around 300,000 euros, urgently and under pressure from the minister’s office, Business France had entrusted it entirely to the Havas Paris agency, without resorting to the competitive bidding provided for by the public procurement code for such sums.
Business France and Havas Paris were then linked by a framework contract which, according to the latter, was intended to “support Business France in its approach to promoting the economic attractiveness of France vis-à-vis decision-makers and opinion leaders abroad and in France.
This indictment marks the awakening of an old legal case which had polluted the start of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term. The affair had fueled accusations against the President of the Republic of having used his position as Minister of the Economy to promote himself before his candidacy for the Elysée.
It was a critical report from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) transmitted by Bercy which led the Paris prosecutor’s office to open the investigation in March 2017, then entrusted to three investigating magistrates.
– Change of investigating judge –
The judges had notified the end of the investigations in 2019, but various procedural appeals have taken place since then and a new financial investigating judge, Serge Tournaire, took over the case, according to a source close to the case.
“Since the start of this affair, I have been exonerated by an audit report, the General Inspectorate of Finance, three investigating judges, the prosecutor, the Paris Court of Appeal, the Court of Accounts”, affirms Ms. Pénicaud, who had initially been placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness.
Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy (c) and the director of Business France, Muriel Pénicaud, meet French startups at the CES 2016 consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, on January 7, 2016 in Nevada (AFP/ Archives/Robyn Beck)
“Eight years later, new investigating judges seem to have a different opinion. I regret it. We will roll up our sleeves and work to convince them that they are wrong,” she added.
Havas Paris was indicted in 2019 for “concealment of favoritism” in this case, while the former communications director of Business France, Fabienne Bothy-Chesneau, was indicted for “favoritism”.
In this case, Muriel Pénicaud, 68, former general director of Human Resources at Danone, assured that she had been made aware of possible malfunctions one month after the organization of the event and had immediately ordered an independent audit from the firm. EY.
Fabienne Bothy-Chesneau, who was his collaborator at the time of the events, had delivered another version to investigators from the anti-corruption office of the judicial police (Oclciff).
According to information collected by Le Monde, she declared to the courts that Ms. Pénicaud “had exactly the same level of knowledge as (her) of the amounts committed and the organizational arrangements”.
In 2018, Le Canard chainé claimed that investigators also had numerous emails testifying to close contacts between Muriel Pénicaud and Stéphane Fouks, the vice-president of Havas.
According to the weekly, Ms. Pénicaud wrote to her assistant on June 4, 2015, shortly before Havas obtained a major contract launched by Business France: “I have a secret meeting with (Stéphane) Fouks, that does not must not be on my agenda and it must not be known.”
© 2023 AFP
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